BOB DAISLEY: Recent OZZY Reissues Are Insult To RANDY RHOADS' Memory

July 10, 2002

Former OZZY OSBOURNE bassist Bob Daisley is continuing his fight in the court of public opinion over the fact that OZZY's early solo albums were recently re-issued with re-recorded bass and drum tracks courtesy of current OSBOURNE bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer Mike Bordin.

Speaking to Chart Attack, Daisley acknowledged being responsible for all of the lyrics on Blizzard Of Ozz, Diary Of A Madman, Bark At The Moon and Ultimate Sin, not to mention being called in at the last minute to lay down bass for No Rest For The Wicked and No More Tears when OZZY was desperate and needed the job done by someone who could be counted on to do it right.

"OZZY didn't write lyrics," said Daisley." He never wrote lyrics in SABBATH — Geezer Butler wrote all those lyrics and Randy [Rhoads] wasn't a lyricist, and Lee Kerslake wasn't a lyricist, so I took over the lyricist job."

With respect to the recent reissues, the bassist revealed that "I kind of expected it in one way that they would want to do something to either piss us off, or whatever, and insulting us I expect, but when it comes to insulting the memory of [late guitarist] Randy Rhoads....

"Geez, good timing there, OZZY," he continued, adding, "It's about the 20th anniversary of Randy's death and right after the anniversary the albums come out within a few days.

"That's a real insult to the memory of Randy because he doesn't even get a say in who they put his playing with," Daisley said. "His mother is pissed off about it. I talked to Mrs Rhoads about it because I still talk to her once and a while."

"OZZY doesn't play an instrument and he's not all that musical," Daisley replied when asked about the origins of the group's early material. "He's got good ideas as far as melodies go, but usually the melodies came after the music had been put together, and most of the music [on Blizzard] was put together by me and Randy, and for the second album, me, Randy and Lee."

"I guess they got pissed off because of the loyalty between me and Lee," said Daisley who recalled OZZY wanting to replace Kerslake with Tommy Aldridge early on. "They wanted to control things, so they got rid of Lee and they got rid of me with him. And that was right at the end — we'd finished the last few notes of Diary Of A Madman and the album wasn't even mixed."

"They put these albums out without any notification on the front saying 'This isn't the original band — this isn't the original recordings'," explained Daisley. "People could buy them out of ignorance, not knowing, and get them home and think 'What the fuck is this!'"